Pre-cooked food for the widely used instant-cooking food, is charged into an adiabatic or heat-insulative receptacle after being dried. In preparation for consumption, hot water is poured over the food in the receptacle to reconstitute it.
When the instant-cooking food which is the principal food product and several kinds of subsidiary foods are packaged together in the receptacle and are restored by pouring hot water therein, and the poured water is sipped as soup after restoration, a top cover may be required merely to stick to the periphery of the top of the receptacle so as to be easily peeled therefrom. This top is normally formed from flexible material, such as a single sheet of paper, synthetic resin film, or aluminum foil, or a laminated layer in which above materials are suitably combined.
On the other hand, when the instant-cooking food consists of several kinds of subsidiary foods packaged separately from the principal food in the receptacle and when the subsidiary foods and seasoning are adapted to be mixed with the principal food after or upon restoration thereof, the pre-cooked subsidiary foods, as separately packaged, are normally contained in the space between the principal food and a top cover or lid within the receptacle. During preparation for consumption, a part of the lid is peeled off and hot water is poured into the receptacle after removing the separately packed subsidiary foods which will be unpacked and mixed with the hot food preparation. The removal is troublesome. Furthermore, some instant-cooking foods, such as chow-mein, pilaf, curried rice or "chicken and rice," etc. require hot water only for restoration and are ready for consumption after as much of the poured hot water is removed as is possible. In that case, in order to remove only the hot water from the reconstituted food preparation, a lid is provided with an opening through which the hot water is poured. The opening is formed by partially peeling off a part of the lid from the periphery of the opening of the receptacle, and a small gap is provided between the peeled part of the lid and the periphery of the top of the receptacle by suitably pressing the peeled part of the lid when tilting the receptacle so that no food but the water may flow out therefrom. Otherwise, small bores must be provided in the lid itself, through which the hot water is removed. However, keeping such a gap by using fingers and boring is not convenient, and certainly is laborious.